Cowing the Population…(Must Read and E-Mail!!)

he noose around Washington, D.C.’s neck continues to tighten, with no clear way to remove it. Behind the scenes, there is undoubtedly a rising sense of panic. That’s bad. The last thing you want is panicky people operating the far-reaching power levers of the state.

But if push does come to shove, history teaches us, the government will not hesitate to clamp down on its subjects by whatever means necessary to preserve itself. And the best way to mute resistance is to prepare citizens ahead of time for escalating levels of police control. An enhanced law enforcement presence must be accepted as the new normal. But rest assured, it’s “for our own good.”

That disclaimer has been used to hoodwink decent folk forever. But the truth is, what’s really up is the application of the time-tested political axiom that the more fearful people are, the easier they are to control. We’ve seen this principle at work for years. Politicians continually pass more intrusive laws; and police take increasing liberties with our rights, content that the courts will back them up… which they have done, as spineless judges hand them larger and larger cartes blanche to act however they please. The first ten amendments to the Constitution have been largely gutted. The things the Founders cared most passionately about have been tossed into the dustbin.

We’re told: that our homes are no longer safe from no-knock entries, and warrants be damned (precisely the abuse that most riled the revolutionary colonists); that we should rat out our neighbors at the first sign that something is “amiss,” just as in any communist state you care to mention; and that it should be regarded as okay that warrants of all kinds are commonly served by gangs of helmeted thugs, covered with body armor and toting a dizzying array of lethal weapons.

Readers of a certain age will remember when the police were called peace officers, as their job was primarily to maintain the peace. Who’s heard that quaint term lately? No, now they are law enforcement officers, and they are at war with a widening swath of the citizenry. And the targets of overwhelming force are not just murderers and rapists and armed robbers. SWAT teams are routinely dispatched to deal with bickering spouses, zoned-out pot smokers, parking ticket violators, and those delinquent in loan payments.